Idea born out of General Plan’s community engagement process
Published in the April 27 – May 10, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
John Lang
The city of Morgan Hill is in the process of developing a Telecommunications Infrastructure Master Plan for the benefit of local businesses and residents. The plan will assess existing demand and capacity and will determine what types of improvements are necessary to meet projected future demand for communication systems.
In November, the city held a workshop to hear from local business leaders to better understand current and future telecommunications needs. In late May or early June, city staff will go before the Morgan Hill City Council to discuss the future of upgrading telecom in the community. Morgan Hill Life asked John Lang, economic coordinator with the city, about the master plan and what it might mean for enhancing telecommunications here in Morgan Hill.
City staff have been exploring for a while the idea of a Telecommunications Infrastructure Master Plan for both businesses and residents. What prompted the city to look into developing a master plan for telecom?
The idea of a Telecommunications Master Plan for Morgan Hill was born out of the community engagement process undertaken with the General Plan update. Discussions surrounding future growth and the need for infrastructure improvement included telecommunications. The city heard many concerns from businesses and residents about service levels and speeds and added the telecommunications master plan as a new deliverable under the update to the General Plan. To help the city with developing a Telecommunications Master plan, Tellus Venture Associates was retained through Placeworks (the city’s General Plan consultant) to help focus city efforts on developing the plan.
You surveyed local business and residents about the challenges of telecom systems in the city. What did the city learn from the survey responses that is relevant to developing the master plan?
The city asked both businesses and residents their feelings regarding the use of telecommunications systems (traditional phone, broadband and bundled services). The response ranged from being content with services today, to being very unhappy with the lack of service, service options, speed and reliability. The surveys helped validate early casual feedback on the topic of telecommunications with more statistically significant findings. The city also has engaged service providers to understand operational considerations and issues. As homes and businesses rely more significantly on streaming services, security systems, network communications, service options remain somewhat constrained.
One idea the city is considering exploring is making telecom a separate utility entity for the city. Briefly explain how this might work and what the benefits might be. To clarify, there are a range of options and policies the city could choose to pursue. Communities throughout the United States have had similar experiences and challenges with telecommunications and more specifically in broadband services. There are successful examples in other communities like Cedar Falls, Iowa, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Lafayette, Louisiana, where public private partnerships and consortiums have been developed to facilitate more competition. In addition to the potential for new market entrants, there are other permit review processes that could be implemented by the city to help facilitate a greater deployment of broadband within the community.
The quality of a city’s telecommunications is a key component in the decision making process for Silicon Valley companies in regards to where they will base themselves. How does this play a role in Morgan Hill’s economic development?
For many businesses in Morgan Hill, having reliable and consistent high-speed access throughout the city is critical to their operations. There remains areas in Morgan Hill business districts that do not have any service coverage, which are impediments to attracting new investment into the community. There also remains several residential areas that have no consistent, reliable service in Morgan Hill, and this, too, is an impediment in terms of attracting workforce talent. Morgan Hill is perceived to have these basic broadband amenities and in some instances lacks the infrastructure and investment. These are some of the long-term impediments the city of Morgan Hill is diligently working to resolve and improve.
The city is working with Tellus Venture in consultation for developing the master plan. What advice are they giving the city in developing a telecommunications infrastructure for the future for Morgan Hill?
Tellus Venture Associates has been conducting its independent research and outreach in addition to the city’s survey and outreach and engagement. They will be sharing their preliminary findings in the May time-frame for the city to review. The report will be used to develop specific strategies to improve telecommunications.
